Reality Check 1.01 THE UPDATE

I ask you; Does this look like the face of someone who is living in baby exile? Week 1 of the BFF's new baby, a.k.a. Calla Marie Rihnsmith. The lovechild of our best friends Annie and Ethan. As you well know by my earlier post "Reality Check 1.0" I have spent 9 months waiting to be put in baby exile when Annie had her baby. Instead she arrived and I realized that my moving to NYC wasn't such great timing afterall.

Well, let's just say after one week we are all smitten with Calla, The BFF still remembers my name, I got them a webcam for their laptop so we can Skype, and I might not be such a looser afterall for leaving so soon into little Calla's life.

Or at least I hope not.

Yes, Naomi I guess I can believe that I'm moving to NYC

I've been going to my esthetician for about 7 years. Not even your hair stylist can know 'your business' the way an esthetician can, especially when she's giving you your monthly Bikini Extreme wax (we all have our indulgences and necessities). Naomi knows the business of half of Seattle. She's that good and that discreet.

Mid-way through tinting my eyebrows she just stopped and said "I can't believe you are moving to New York". YOU can't believe it? What about ME?! It's like a dream come true everyday. So much of a dream come true that I shared with her my complete vision of how my life will be and what it will look like. Right down to my fictitious neighborhood bagel dude who will be named Rodney.

It goes something like this:

"I live in a 750 sqr ft apartment in TriBeCa with a rooftop deck. It has a small updated kitchen in an open format with a bar/counter and a view of the living room. A small but efficient bedroom and an even smaller office/spare bedroom loft space with a wallbed that converts to a desk.

Every morning I go to the bodega for a coffee (small problem here, I don't actually drink coffee anymore) on my way to the bagel shop where I'm greeted by Rodney (why I've decided to call him Rodney I don't know) who lives with his grandma Gracie in Queens. Rodney doesn't bother to call me by my name. No, he has his own name for the lady from Seattle. He says to me each day "Hey Smiley! What'll it be? A pumpernickel bagel with veggie cream cheese today for ya?". To which I reply "You bet Rodney. How's Gracie doing today?". And so it goes...

On Saturdays MDHK and I wake up at 9:30, go for a run on the West Side Highway, come back, take a shower together, make love (because we don't have any house maintenance to distract us), go visit Rodney for bagels and catch flick at the local cinema."

So, YES Naomi I guess I can believe that I am moving to NYC.

Reality Check 1.0

For nine months I've approached the impending arrival of my best friend Annie's baby with the attitude that it will be as if she moved away. She will live an alternate universe from me on a different planet and in a different time zone. Being of the child-free-by-choice variety it seemed that I was the one staying the same and she had made the decision to 'move away'.

Today was that day. Little Girl Rihnsmith arrived as Calla Marie. She's beautiful. I mean it. In the midst of feeling love and joy for my best friends I felt a tremdous amount of sadness. I realized that its not Annie that is departing for the alternate universe. Its me. I am moving away at the begining of Calla's life and the biggest adventure of Annie's. I feel like I am letting her down and that I will be missing out on something very special that I will now have to view via Skype and a webcam. Lame.

Our move to the Big Apple has felt like a dream come true until now. Suddenly it feels like a very grave departure from something extremely dear. Reality check 1.0.

Twister Puked on My House

As I mentioned earlier, we have 13 years of accummulation in our house. As if that wasn't enought we just completed (almost) a year and half long basement remodel which included buying additional new furniture for the living room. And now I have to reduce all of this down to a small New York apartment.

Obviously multiple estate and yard sales will be in order, but where to begin. It occured to me to ask my friend Tricia Wells who recently helped her mother move from their large family home into a smaller retirement community home. She and her husband also live in a very small and efficient condo on Queen Anne. I just had a hunch she'd have some ideas and she did.

You know those packs of Avery colored dots you get at any office supply store? I don't know what their original intent is but they've become a brilliant way for me to organize everything in my house based on its fate. RED=sell, GREEN=take to NYC, YELLOW=donate, BLUE=dibbed by a friend. I spent all day identifying, sticking and a little tossing too. Next time you have a lot of stuff to organize turn your house into a Twister party aftermath.

The Butcher The Baker The Relocation Specialist

Oy vey! (how's that for working on my NYC lingo? stay tuned for a blog post on that one). MDHK (My Darling Husband Kent) informed today that the Rental Agent in NYC, the moving company and the relocation specialist all called him to day. I could almost see the stress lines in his forehead deepening over the phone. Time to jump into 'Calm-Creative-Multi-Tasking-Supportive-Wife' mode and say something re-assuring to him like "Don't worry about a thing, honey, just give me their numbers and I'll call them back".

Am I crazy?! I have no idea what to tell them. Where do I begin? How about I start by having a nervous breakdown over the tremendous amount of crap we've accummulated over the last 13 years of marriage? Or that we aren't actually finished with the basement remodel yet. Oh, I know I'll start by telling them we have no idea when MDHK is actually supposed to be in NYC because they are too busy here in Seattle to have figured that out yet.

In the meantime I have two proposals to write, a newsletter for LifeStyled to send out, a press release for my DVD to start pushing on editors & publications. "Calgon take me away!" (you have to be of a certain age to get that, sorry kids).

Where everybody knows your name

Its always been a bit of joke between MDHK (a.k.a. My Darling Husband Kent) and I that I can't go anywhere in Seattle without running into someone I know. Like the other night. We were both feeling too exhausted to make dinner and used it as an excuse to go to the Taco Time up the street (who doesn't have it in for a Mexi Fry?). As you can imagine if I was too tired to cook I was also too tired to get "gussied up". No biggie, right?

Not so fast. As a Personal Stylist people just expect that you always look perfectly put-together. Well one of my most endearing qualities has to be my ability to 'keep it real'. And real I was when in walks Tracy Klinkroth, sassy entrepreneur and urban social scenester. There I was in baggy jeans, my favorite old sweater and worn out Dansko clogs (yes, you heard me). I was a vision of grey and looking like a real Seattle-ite.

It got me wondering about what will be my neighborhood guilty pleasure excuse in NYC. Will I ever get to the point that I run into someone I know not looking my best in NYC? Its such a big place I suppose it's possible not to. And finally it occured to me that the days of hearing MDHK say "Do you know everyone in this town" are slowing drawing near to an end.

The Sum Of Our Experiences

As I watched the people pour through the door it hit me that this was going to be the perfect opportunity for me to make a big announcement.

A week ago on January 22nd I co-hosted the biggest party I've ever thrown; New Style For New Times. Not only was it the collaboration betwen like minded business owners, Craig Williams of Craig Williams Interiors and Evelyn & Michael Lee of Alchemy Collections,and myself but it was also billed as the launch event for my new DVD, "The Essential Guide".

More than a party it was the sum of many life experiences for me. The over 200 people that attended were friends, clients, compatriots, collaborators, supporters, and family. They were there to show their support and drink free wine, but they got so much more.

As I took the microphone to say some 'thank you's', announce my DVD, share tips and insights on how to maintain personal style in a challenging economy I realized that this was the pefect time to tell everyone what I'd been slowly leaking out over the last month. So I did it.

I announced to group of 200 people that my darling husband Kent and I would be moving to the other apple of my eye, New York City in May of this year!

There it was. I said it. No turning back now. People were thrilled, excited, sad, happy. I knew just how they felt. Now the real adventure begins. Right?!